I never knew you did decorating and staging. Love how their room turned out and that that swing is so great. I really like the print on the swing cushions. Very neutral and stylish.
I’m having fun making some Fall table runners and maybe couple of pillows. I keep unearthing fabric in my sewing room boxes to make things with. The only thing my machine won’t do is sew burlap, machine really rebels and jams so I have to sew the ruffles on ends of runner by hand but I take it a little at a time and it turns out better. Think I’ll make a couple for friends.
I love riding and driving go carts. Only did it once and sure had a good time.
You’ll be going home soon won’t you? Sorry for bringing up something you’d rather not have to think about. Enjoy your vacation. They give us something to look forward to.

OK- Melissa, you have, once again, outdone yourself. As the OWNERS of the swing, we love it for not only the aesthetics, and “cool/wow” factor, but it is wonderfully comfortable and a great nap-taking couch. It took a while for us to research the best rope to suspend the swing, and you need to make sure you hit those ceiling joists. The best rope ended up being (for those of you who want to steal Melissa’s great idea) a twisted/braided nylon sailing rope for securing one’s yacht to the pier. Instead of securing our yacht, we secure our swing.

Thank you Melissa! When we were looking at the pictures this morning, Renee and I both agreed that we cannot believe we live here!

Beautiful! I so love that swing! I have always dreamed of a sunroom or porch with a swing like that. Unfortunately, I have neither a sunroom nor a large-enough covered porch. I had never considered putting one in the living room, but what a great idea. Or, maybe in my bedroom?? What a pleasure that would be, facing the bay windows??!!

That’s a fabulous room, I love the swing and the wire spool especially. How wonderful tht they already had the marble top, perfect look for a family room.
Glad to know that you’re having lots of fun at the beach.
Hugs, Cindy

Congratulations on your newest completed room! I am in awe of the swing in this room. I seriously have thought about doing this for my play room, I think I may to go through with it now. Can I ask if you have tips on how it was hung from the ceiling? So fun! Sharing at my party. Also, love the electrical spool, I have one too, but I am giving to a friend for her front porch. She will love this post. -K

@Karen:
We have hung this swing 3 times now in 3 different houses and we have gotten pretty good at it. Here is how it is done:
Go to your local home improvement store and buy 2 6″ long swing hanging hooks (you will find them probably in the rope section.) They will be a bit over 1/2″ in width and have a pretty heavy duty thread on them. You will then measure, check, double measure and double check and then triple measure and triple check (with a good stud-finder I might add) for your ceiling joists. MOST houses (built buy reputable builders in the last 50 years) will have joists on 16″ centers. This means that if you find one ceiling joist (or wall stud for that matter) that you can count on finding one 16″ farther down the wall or ceiling. This particular swing was built with that in mind (Melissa’s dad built it for us.)
Once you find those ceiling joists and you have confirmed you have the CENTER of those joists, I would suggest drilling a long (2″ minimum) small (1/8″ drill bit) confirmation hole. If you hit wood all the way – you should be good to go. Then you will drill a good deep (again, 2-3″ deep) pilot hole with a smaller than normal drill bit. What you want in the drill bit is that the threads of your hanging screw are bigger than the drill bit. Hard to describe, but a good place to start would be to look at the 1/4″ drill bit to use as the pilot hole drill bit.
Once you have both pilot holes drilled (hopefully you had LOTS of wood chips fall out – that is a good sign) you will then need to begin screwing the hangers in. I use a very long (12-14″)) thick screwdriver for leverage. You will have a pretty tough time getting it all the way in the ceiling (that is a good thing) but it is worth it. Take the screws all the way up to the neck of the hanger meeting the ceiling. (I will respond separately on the rope choices, etc.)

On the rope choice – we ordered our rope (for this time hanging the swing) from amazon.com. You want very strong rope, but you also need rope that will not stretch when it is put under a load. Here is the exact rope we ordered – we need 2 of them for a 9′ ceiling [Seasense Double Braided Deckline 1/2″ x 25′ long.) You could hang with the same length of rope from a 10′ ceiling as well, you would just cut off less of the rope.) You will then need to tie some good knots (having an Eagle Scout at this point would be helpful) and start on the front of the swing (again, this was made for this purpose, so we had the right holes in the right places, etc) and then run the rope from front of swing to ceiling to back of swing. The next big challenge is setting your height and making sure it is level. We have found that a long level across the back of the swing will make sure it is even on both sides, but you will not want it perfectly flat front back to back as that makes it feel like you are about to fall forward off the swing. This will take a bit of time and adjusting. Ultimately you will want to finish off the rope in the back with a “friction” knot that will only get tighter under load. I will try to post some pictures, but if not, maybe Melissa could take some and post them for you if you need them. Best of luck and enjoy. We have had 2 adults, 2 dogs and 3 kids in it before and have been swinging and it has not budged…

I was just going back through older posts on your blog and found this fabulous one that I’d missed. I think the swing is so cool I just had to say something!
I love it all, you did a fabulous job!
Hugs,
Patti